Lest we forget

[Velma's Dad]

Tomorrow (1 July) is of course the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which well over a million men from many corners of Europe, and beyond, were slaughtered.

I've seen from other threads that quite a few Cali owners have visited the Flanders battlefields. I want to do that myself at some point.

I thought it might be worthwhile starting this thread and invite anyone who has visited the battlefields to post their impressions here (maybe including practicalities for visiting). I would certainly like to read them.

 

[GrannyJen]

I could write you 1 1/2 guide books

It was after all my job .... now I'm just a crocked up old has been that various people drag out of the cupboard and dust off once in a while to give talks on it.

Do you mean specifically Flanders or the whole WW1 battlefields including Artois, the Somme, Mons and the French sectors, especially Verdun?

I ask as I always suggest taking it region by region, Ypres sector, Artois (Loos, Arras, Aubers ridge etc), Ancre and Somme, Retreat from Mons, French sectors (Verdun, St Quentin, Chemin de Dames etc)

 

[WelshGas]

Took the whole family there ( 5 children ), pre-California. A moving place to visit, and a visit that the children still remember,and that is, I think, one of the most important lessons from the visit .



To Remember​

 

[Velma's Dad]

Do you mean specifically Flanders or the whole WW1 battlefields including Artois, the Somme, Mons and the French sectors, especially Verdun?

Sorry I meant of course all the WW1 battlefields wherever in the world (for all I know, Cali owners may have visited the Dardanelles or Iraq!).

 

[Loz]

My Great Grandfather, Frederick Freeman - East Yorkshire Regiment 7th Bn
and Mrs Loz's Great uncle, Walter George Oakey - Royal Marine Light Infantry 2nd R.M. Bn. R.N. Div
both died in the first world war and are listed the Arras memorial.

We bought one of the poppies from the tower and also had their names added to the roll call.

It is our intention to visit next year on their anniversaries to take the poppy to them and remember them and take a photo of the poppy and add the photos to their records on our Ancestry tree...

Would be nice to have a historical Cali meet in France one weekend...

 

[Hotel California]

My Great Grandfather, Frederick Freeman - East Yorkshire Regiment 7th Bn
and Mrs Loz's Great uncle, Walter George Oakey - Royal Marine Light Infantry 2nd R.M. Bn. R.N. Div
both died in the first world war and are listed the Arras memorial.

We bought one of the poppies from the tower and also had their names added to the roll call.

It is our intention to visit next year on their anniversaries to take the poppy to them and remember them and take a photo of the poppy and add the photos to their records on our Ancestry tree...

Would be nice to have a historical Cali meet in France one weekend...

I know a great place , close to Calais , close to all the memorial sites , few hours driving to Ypres -the last post , in the champage region where we could drink a glas to thank all those who died (not beeing offencife at all ) in all the wars all over the world for theire bravery and courage....may they all rest in pace.
Stopt at a few memorial sites on our way home from France , unreal seeing all those names on the walls....

 

[GrannyJen]

..

Would be nice to have a historical Cali meet in France one weekend...

If enough interest then I would be happy to organise and give guided tours,

 

[GrannyJen]

Well,

What a sad day

I am going for dinner soon, to say my eyes are red from tears would be an understatement.

I also wore my Grandfathers MM today, for the first time, no doubt the Royal British Legion will tell me off but I don't care, I wore it with pride for my Granddad was a casualty on the first day, but stuck to his guns for two more days, literally (he was RFA).

Terribly sad, a reflection on what a fortunate generation that I belong to, probably the first generation in around 2,500 years that has not experienced a European war. I felt immensely privileged to be before that great memorial today.

Now, I need a glass of wine.

With or without Brexit, today, proud to be British, proud to be European, hugely grateful for the sacrifice given so that I can be who I am, not what a totalitarian regime tells me to be.

 

[AlisonF]

Well,

What a sad day

I am going for dinner soon, to say my eyes are red from tears would be an understatement.

I also wore my Grandfathers MM today, for the first time, no doubt the Royal British Legion will tell me off but I don't care, I wore it with pride for my Granddad was a casualty on the first day, but stuck to his guns for two more days, literally (he was RFA).

Terribly sad, a reflection on what a fortunate generation that I belong to, probably the first generation in around 2,500 years that has not experienced a European war. I felt immensely privileged to be before that great memorial today.

Now, I need a glass of wine.

With or without Brexit, today, proud to be British, proud to be European, hugely grateful for the sacrifice given so that I can be who I am, not what a totalitarian regime tells me to be.

Been thinking of you a lot today GJ. Good for you for being there. Your grandad would be proud. Enjoy the wine, you deserve it. Take care.

 

[Hotel California]

Was on our Belgian news also , 72.000 names on the wall....mankind what heve you done....?

 

[Meoncoast]

 

[44Whitehall]

I'm hoping to take wife and two young boys (6 and 9) to the WWI battlefields etc. en route from Calais to the Dordogne this summer. I'd certainly welcome any suggestions for child-friendly WWI experience and sites nearby.

Thanks

 

[GrannyJen]

Was on our Belgian news also , 72.000 names on the wall....mankind what heve you done....?

HC... it does not stop there,

48,000 names on the Menin gate at Ypres and 38,000 names on the memorial wall at Tyne Cot, between Zonnebeke and Passendale, these recording the names of those who have no known graves. Tyne Cot, the largest of commonwealth War cemeteries with a further 9,000 war graves.

Of course we must also remember other nations, the german war cemetery at Langemark with 44,000 dead and on the Somme the 17,000 dead lying in Fricourt cemetery.

The french, on their home soil, the russians, the troops of empires and commonwealth, the civilians. War is a most inhuman process wrought upon us by politicians overfed on ego and starved of compassion and ideas.

The compelling feature is that for all the bestiality of the WW1 slaughter the phrase "we shall not forget" holds true. The war graves are a beautifully kept reminder that they are not forgotten and should never be for on their sacrifice and in their memory civilisation has the impetus to find other ways to resolve disputes.

Now I'm crying again, and why bloody not, aren't I the lucky one.

God bless the fallen, your sacrifice is my democracy.

 

[Hotel California]

I know it does not stop afther those 72.000 was just referring on what they said on the journal.
Been to the Menningate and a few few memorialsites , cementery's
We can't turn back the clock , they died not knowing wherefor , we do know now.....

 

[Borris]

My Grandfather, James Lukehurst, who I knew as "Grump", took part in the battle of the Somme and was wounded. Fortunately he survived the war but returned a different man. Before the war he was apparently a happy go lucky chap living on the Romney Marsh in Kent and after he returned his character had sadly but not surprisingly, completely changed. Like many survivers he suffered frequent bouts of deep depression and was always quite withdrawn. I am sure that this would now be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He suffered from these effects for the rest of his life until he died aged 87 in 1972, still with shrapnel inside him from his WW1 injury. He is second from the right, back row. He is standing in front of my Grandmother and holding my Aunt.

This photo is interesting because it was taken in 1919 outside the then family home in Bilsington, Kent. My grandfather had seven brothers and seven sisters, all present in this photo along with my great grandmother and father in the centre.
The reason that this photo was taken was that they had all come together for a party to give thanks because they had all survived both the Great War and the catastrophic Spanish flu pandemic that followed. According to the web this pandemic, called La Grippe apparently claimed between twenty and forty million souls and strangely, mostly effected people between the ages of twenty and forty.

This photo is something that I often reflect upon when I study war memorials that I see in every church, village and town that I visit throughout the UK. Amongst the very sad and usualy long list or war dead you will almost always find families that appeared to have lost several members in the Great War. The Lukehursts were apparently the largest surviving family in Kent. Something that I am sure would have been most unusual in the UK at that time.

I have visited the war graves in France and Belgium on numerous occasions and have also attended ceremonies at the Menin Gate in Ypres. When visiting these areas in the winter months when even the smallest depression in the ground is full of water it doesn't take much imagination to know that these brave men from all around the world and on both sides of the conflict lived and fought in the most appalling conditions often for weeks on end and in all weathers. The sacrifice that these men made is both humbling and extremely moving and I hope the world never sees anything like this again. What a tragic waste.

 

[Velma's Dad]

The Somme battles were to continue through the summer and autumn of 1916. My great-uncle Reginald was killed, aged nineteen, on 16 September, day two of the battle of Flers–Courcelette. Although he was a farmer's lad from Somerset he somehow ended up serving with 6th Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI).

The two companies of 6 KOYLI who took part in that evening's attack had 50 men killed, including Reg, the great majority by the German machine guns. His body was never recovered so his name is on the Thiepval memorial.

While it's natural for those of us who are Brits to relate most strongly to those from our own nationals who died, and especially those from our own families, I try to remember also that the largest numbers of casualties in the whole war were suffered by Germany and Russia. But understanding the experiences of individual soldiers, whose destiny to live or die seems almost to have been on the roll of a dice, is what brings it home for me. My maternal grandfather, who served in the Canadian infantry, was wounded in 1915 at Second Ypres, a random event that almost certainly saved his life and allows me to be writing this now.